Method, device, medium and processor for phase noise processing in millimeter wave communications

Abstract

The disclosed embodiments relate to apparatus, systems, and methods for better handling phase noise (PN) in millimeter wave (MMW or mmWave) communications in wireless communication systems such as 5G NR. When severe phase noise is present in a communication link, link performance can be significantly degraded. Therefore, it is desirable to utilize various techniques to compensate for phase noise in millimeter wave communications. In Rel‑15, a phase tracking reference signal (PT‑RS or PTRS) is specified for both downlink and uplink communications, particularly for cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP‑OFDM) and discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT‑S‑OFDM). However, prior art PTRS methods using block-based pilot allocation schemes require complex receiver processing. Therefore, the technology disclosed herein attempts to embed one or more frequency bands with a DFT‑S‑OFDM PTRS design into the data allocation bandwidth of an OFDM transmission to better handle PN per sub-OFDM symbol time interval.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to wireless devices, and more particularly, to an apparatus, system, and method for processing phase noise (PN) in millimeter wave (MMW or mmWave) communications in a wireless communication system. Background Art

[0002] The use of wireless communication systems is growing rapidly. In recent years, wireless devices such as smartphones and tablet computers have become increasingly sophisticated. In addition to supporting phone calls, many mobile devices now also provide access to the Internet, email, text messaging and navigation using the Global Positioning System (GPS), and are capable of operating sophisticated applications that utilize these capabilities. In addition, there are many different wireless communication technologies and wireless communication standards. Some examples of wireless communication standards include GSM, UMTS (e.g., associated with WCDMA or TD-SCDMA air interfaces), LTE, Advanced LTE (LTE-A), HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), IEEE 802.11 (WLAN or Wi-Fi), BLUETOOTH, and LTE-A. TM wait.

[0003] The introduction of an ever-increasing number of features and functions in wireless communication devices also requires continuous improvements in wireless communication and wireless communication devices. In order to increase coverage and better serve the increasing demand and range of intended uses of wireless communication, in addition to the aforementioned communication standards, there are also wireless communication technologies being developed, including fifth-generation (5G) New Radio (NR) communications. Therefore, there is a need for improvements in the field that support such development and design. Summary of the Invention

[0004] Various embodiments relate to apparatus, systems, and methods for better handling phase noise (PN) in millimeter wave (MMW or mmWave) communications in wireless communication systems, such as 5G NR. In 5G NR, mmWave refers to a portion of the spectrum in the millimeter wave frequency range, with the technology spanning approximately 30 GHz to 300 GHz. Recent 5G NR research has focused on the bandwidth available at mmWave frequencies between 24 GHz and 100 GHz. Signals in the mmWave frequency range are easily absorbed by objects in their propagation path, such as buildings, trees, and human body parts. Successfully handling phase noise is another challenge in mmWave communication system design. When severe phase noise is present in a communication link, link performance can be significantly degraded. The time unit used to obtain a phase noise estimate determines the ultimate limit to which a receiver can correct for phase noise. However, mmWave signals also offer many benefits, such as greater bandwidth, capacity, faster transmission speeds, and smaller antennas. Therefore, for mmWave communications, it is desirable to utilize various techniques to reliably compensate for phase noise.

[0005] In Rel-15, a Phase Tracking Reference Signal (PT-RS or PTRS) is specified for both downlink and uplink communications, specifically for Cyclic Prefix Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (CP-OFDM) and Discrete Fourier Transform Spread Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM). However, prior art PTRS methods for CP-OFDM are not conducive to estimating phase noise in time units less than the duration of a single OFDM symbol. Therefore, the techniques disclosed herein can be used to embed one or more frequency bands with a DFT-S-OFDM PTRS design within the data allocation bandwidth of an OFDM transmission.

[0006] The techniques described herein may be implemented in and / or used with a number of different types of devices, including, but not limited to, any of cellular telephones, wireless devices, tablet computers, wearable computing devices, portable media players, and various other computing devices.

[0007] This summary is intended to provide a brief overview of some of the subject matter described in this document. Therefore, it should be understood that the above-described features are merely examples and should not be construed as narrowing the scope or spirit of the subject matter described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparent from the following detailed description, accompanying drawings, and claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] A better understanding of the present subject matter may be obtained when the following detailed description of various embodiments is considered in conjunction with the following drawings, in which:

[0009] Figure 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system according to some embodiments;

[0010] Figure 2 shows a base station (BS) in communication with a user equipment (UE) device according to some embodiments;

[0011] Figure 3 An exemplary block diagram illustrating a UE according to some embodiments is shown;

[0012] Figure 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a BS according to some embodiments;

[0013] Figure 5 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of cellular communication circuitry according to some embodiments;

[0014] Figure 6 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a network element according to some embodiments;

[0015] Figure 7 An exemplary proposed PTRS structure for OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM transmission according to various aspects of the prior art is shown;

[0016] Figure 8 An exemplary PTRS insertion scheme for CP-OFDM transmission according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown;

[0017] Figure 9 An exemplary orthogonal coverage scheme for PTRS ports according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown;

[0018] Figure 10 An exemplary PTRS insertion scheme for CP-OFDM transmission using blocks according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown;

[0019] Figure 11A and Figure 11B An exemplary PTRS port multiplexing scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown;

[0020] Figure 12 An exemplary scheme for multiplexing PTRS and demodulation reference signal (DMRS) signals according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown; and

[0021] Figure 13A and Figure 13B Techniques for wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure are shown.

[0022] While the features described herein are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. However, it should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereof are not intended to limit this disclosure to the specific forms disclosed, but on the contrary, are intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0023] In certain wireless communication scenarios, such as the so-called millimeter wave scenario, successfully handling phase noise may be important for successful uplink and downlink communications. Therefore, according to some embodiments disclosed herein, in CP-OFDM-based transmission, one or more frequency bands with DFT-S-OFDM-based PTRS are embedded in the transmitted signal.

[0024] For example, assuming that in a given wireless communication system, the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and / or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) allocation consists of a certain number, namely N physical resource blocks (PRBs), according to some embodiments disclosed in this document, N_b PTRS bands can be defined within the N PRBs; within each PTRS band, there are N_c consecutive PRBs, and the N_b PTRS bands can be evenly distributed within the N PRBs.

[0025] With the introduction of such PTRS bands, a receiver device (such as a user equipment (UE) device) or a transmitter device (such as a gNodeB (gNB)) can perform steps according to the following process: using a narrowband filter for the PTRS band of input quadrature (IQ) samples to extract each band containing PTRS; then, using time-domain or frequency-domain processing to obtain a time-domain PTRS signal, which may be subject to phase noise effects at both the gNB and the UE. With the various waveforms proposed herein, phase noise at the gNB / UE does not destroy the orthogonality of the signals mapped to different time samples.

[0026] Once the phase noise estimates for the sub-time units are obtained from each PTRS band, they can be combined with estimates from other PTRS bands to obtain more reliable estimates. Alternatively, a joint estimate can be made across all PTRS bands to obtain a joint estimate for each sub-time unit. Other alternatives are also possible, such as using grouping of PTRS bands, etc. After the sub-time units are established, interpolation and / or smoothing can be used to obtain estimates for even finer time units. Using any method, the phase noise estimates for the sub-time units can then be applied to the IQ samples to compensate for the phase noise, and the FFT can then be applied to the compensated signal for further frequency domain processing.

[0027] As will be explained further herein, various techniques may also be employed to allow multiplexing of PTRS for multiple UEs on the same physical resources.

[0028] The following is a glossary of terms that may be used in this disclosure:

[0029] Memory medium—any of various types of non-transitory memory devices or storage devices. The term "memory medium" is intended to include installation media, such as CD-ROMs, floppy disks, or tape devices; computer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; non-volatile memory such as flash memory, magnetic media, such as hard drives or optical storage devices; registers or other similar types of memory elements, etc. Memory media may also include other types of non-transitory memory or combinations thereof. In addition, the memory medium may be located in the first computer system executing the program, or may be located in a different second computer system connected to the first computer system via a network such as the Internet. In the latter case, the second computer system may provide program instructions to the first computer for execution. The term "memory medium" may include two or more memory media that may reside in different locations in different computer systems connected, for example, via a network. The memory medium may store program instructions (e.g., represented as a computer program) that can be executed by one or more processors.

[0030] Carrier Medium—storage media as described above and physical transmission media such as a bus, network, and / or other physical transmission media that carry signals such as electrical, electromagnetic, or digital signals.

[0031] Programmable hardware elements—include various hardware devices that include multiple programmable function blocks connected via programmable interconnects. Examples include FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), PLDs (programmable logic devices), FPOAs (field programmable object arrays), and CPLDs (complex PLDs). Programmable function blocks can range from fine-grained (combinational logic units or lookup tables) to coarse-grained (arithmetic logic units or processor cores). Programmable hardware elements may also be referred to as "configurable logic units."

[0032] Computer system—any of various types of computing or processing systems, including a personal computer system (PC), mainframe computer system, workstation, network appliance, Internet appliance, personal digital assistant (PDA), television system, grid computing system, or other device or combination of devices. In general, the term "computer system" can be broadly defined to encompass any device (or combination of devices) having at least one processor that executes instructions from a memory medium.

[0033] User Equipment (UE) (or "UE device") - any of various types of computer systems or devices that are mobile or portable and that perform wireless communication. Examples of UE devices include mobile phones or smartphones (e.g., iPhones, TM , based on Android TM phones), portable gaming devices (e.g., Nintendo DS TM PlayStation Portable TM 、Gameboy Advance TM , iPhone TM ), laptop computers, wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, smart glasses), PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storage devices or other handheld devices, etc. In general, the term "UE" or "UE device" can be broadly defined to cover any electronic device, computing device and / or telecommunication device (or combination of devices) that can be easily transported by a user and capable of wireless communication.

[0034] Wireless Device—Any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform wireless communications. A wireless device may be portable (or mobile), or may be stationary or fixed in place. A UE is an example of a wireless device.

[0035] Communication Device—Any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform communication, where the communication may be wired or wireless. A communication device may be portable (or mobile), or may be stationary or fixed in place. A wireless device is one example of a communication device. A UE is another example of a communication device.

[0036] Base Station—The term “base station” has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning and includes at least a wireless communication station that is installed at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of a wireless telephone system or radio system.

[0037] Processing element (or processor)—refers to any element or combination of elements capable of performing functions in a device such as user equipment or a cellular network device. A processing element may include, for example, a processor and associated memory, portions or circuits of individual processor cores, an entire processor core, a separate processor, an array of processors, circuits such as ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits), programmable hardware elements such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and any of the above combinations.

[0038] Channel - the medium used to transmit information from a sender (transmitter) to a receiver. It should be noted that since the characteristics of the term "channel" may vary according to different wireless protocols, the term "channel" as used in the present invention may be considered to be used in a manner that is consistent with the standard of the type of device to which the term is used. In some standards, the channel width may be variable (e.g., depending on device capabilities, frequency band conditions, etc.). For example, LTE may support scalable channel bandwidths of 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz. In contrast, a WLAN channel may be 22 MHz wide, while a Bluetooth channel may be 1 MHz wide. Other protocols and standards may include different definitions of channels. In addition, some standards may define and use multiple types of channels, such as different channels for uplink or downlink and / or different channels for different purposes such as data, control information, etc.

[0039] Frequency band—The term “frequency band” has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning and includes at least a segment of the spectrum (eg, radio frequency spectrum) in which channels are used or set aside for the same purpose.

[0040] Automatic—refers to an action or operation being performed by a computer system (e.g., software executed by the computer system) or a device (e.g., a circuit, a programmable hardware element, an ASIC, etc.) without requiring user input to directly specify or execute the action or operation. Thus, the term "automatic" is in contrast to operations that are manually performed or specified by a user, where the user provides input to directly perform the operation. An automatic process may be initiated by user-provided input, but the subsequent actions performed "automatically" are not specified by the user, i.e., they are not performed "manually," where the user specifies each action to be performed. For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting each field and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typing information, selecting checkboxes, radio selections, etc.) is not manually filling out the form, even though the computer system must update the form in response to the user's actions. The form can be automatically filled out by a computer system, where the computer system (e.g., software executing on the computer system) analyzes the fields of the form and fills it out without requiring any user input to specify the answers to the fields. As indicated above, a user can invoke the automatic filling of a form without participating in the actual filling out of the form (e.g., the user does not manually specify the answers to the fields; they are automatically completed). This specification provides various examples of operations that are automatically performed in response to actions that a user has taken.

[0041] About—refers to a value that is close to being correct or exact. For example, about can refer to a value that is within 1% to 10% of the exact (or desired) value. However, it should be noted that the actual threshold value (or tolerance) may depend on the application. For example, in some embodiments, "about" may mean within 0.1% of some specified or desired value, while in various other embodiments, the threshold value may be, for example, 2%, 3%, 5%, etc., depending on the desires or requirements of a particular application.

[0042] Concurrency—refers to parallel execution or implementation, where tasks, processes, or programs are executed in an at least partially overlapping manner. For example, concurrency can be achieved using "strong" or strict parallelism, where tasks are executed (at least partially) in parallel on respective computing elements, or using "weak parallelism," where tasks are executed in an interleaved manner (e.g., by time multiplexing of execution threads).

[0043] Configured to—Various components may be described as being “configured to” perform one or more tasks. In such contexts, “configured to” is a broad statement that generally means “having the structure” to perform one or more tasks during operation. Thus, a component can be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently performing the task (e.g., a set of electrical conductors can be configured to electrically connect a module to another module even when the two modules are not connected). In some contexts, “configured to” can be a broad statement that generally means “having the circuitry” to perform one or more tasks during operation. Thus, a component can be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently turned on. Generally, the circuitry that forms the structure corresponding to “configured to” may include hardware circuitry.

[0044] For ease of description, various components may be described as performing one or more tasks. Such descriptions should be interpreted as including the phrase "configured to." Representing a component as being configured to perform one or more tasks expressly intends that the component not be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. §112(f).

[0045] Now go to Figure 1 , shows a simplified example of a wireless communication system according to some embodiments. Note that Figure 1 The system is only one example of a possible system, and features of the present disclosure may be implemented in any of a variety of systems as desired.

[0046] As shown, the exemplary wireless communication system includes a base station 102A that communicates with one or more user devices 106A, 106B, 106N, etc. via a transmission medium. Each user device may be referred to herein as a "user equipment" (UE). Therefore, user device 106 is referred to as a UE or UE device.

[0047] Base station (BS) 102A may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or a cell site ("cellular base station") and may include hardware that enables wireless communications with UEs 106A through 106N.

[0048] The communication area (or coverage area) of a base station may be referred to as a "cell". The base station 102A and the UE 106 may be configured to communicate over a transmission medium using any of a variety of radio access technologies (RATs), also known as wireless communication technologies or telecommunication standards, such as GSM, UMTS (associated with, for example, WCDMA or TD-SCDMA air interfaces), LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), 5G New Radio (5G-NR), HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), and the like. Note that if the base station 102A is implemented in the context of LTE, it may alternatively be referred to as an "eNodeB" or "eNB". Note that if the base station 102A is implemented in the context of 5G NR, it may alternatively be referred to as a "gNodeB" or "gNB".

[0049] As shown, base station 102A may also be configured to communicate with network 100 (e.g., a cellular service provider's core network, a telecommunications network such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and / or the Internet, among other possibilities). Thus, base station 102A may facilitate communications between user devices and / or between user devices and network 100. In particular, cellular base station 102A may provide UE 106 with various communication capabilities, such as voice, SMS, and / or data services.

[0050] Base station 102A and other similar base stations (such as base stations 102B...102N) operating according to the same or different cellular communication standards can therefore be provided as a network of cells that can provide continuous or nearly continuous overlapping service to UEs 106A-N and similar devices over a geographic area via one or more cellular communication standards.

[0051] Thus, although base station 102A may function as Figure 1106A-N, each UE 106 may also be capable of receiving signals from (and possibly within communication range of) one or more other cells (which may be provided by base stations 102B-N and / or any other base stations), which may be referred to as "neighboring cells." Such cells may also be capable of facilitating communications between user devices and / or between user devices and network 100. Such cells may include "macro" cells, "micro" cells, "pico" cells, and / or cells of any other variety of granularities of service area size. For example, in Figure 1 The base stations 102A-102B shown in FIG may be macro cells, while the base station 102N may be a micro cell. Other configurations are also possible.

[0052] In some embodiments, base station 102A may be a next generation base station, such as a 5G New Radio (5G NR) base station or "gNB". In some embodiments, the gNB may be connected to a legacy evolved packet core (EPC) network and / or to an NR core (NRC) / 5G core (5GC) network. In addition, a gNB cell may include one or more transition and reception points (TRPs). In addition, a UE capable of operating in accordance with 5GNR may be connected to one or more TRPs within one or more gNBs. For example, base station 102A and one or more other base stations 102 may support joint transmissions such that UE 106 may be able to receive transmissions from multiple base stations (and / or multiple TRPs provided by the same base station). For example, as Figure 1 As shown, base station 102A and base station 102C are both shown serving UE 106A.

[0053] It is noted that the UE 106 is capable of communicating using multiple wireless communication standards. For example, in addition to at least one cellular communication protocol (e.g., GSM, UMTS (associated with, for example, WCDMA or TD-SCDMA air interfaces), LTE, LTE-A, 5G NR, HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), etc.), the UE 106 can be configured to communicate using wireless networking (e.g., Wi-Fi) and / or peer-to-peer wireless communication protocols (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi peer-to-peer, etc.). If desired, the UE 106 can also or alternatively be configured to communicate using one or more global navigation satellite systems (GNSS, such as GPS or GLONASS), one or more mobile television broadcast standards (e.g., Advanced Television Systems Committee - Mobile / Handheld (ATSC-M / H)), and / or any other wireless communication protocols. Other combinations of wireless communication standards (including more than two wireless communication standards) are also possible.

[0054] Figure 2A user equipment 106 (e.g., one of devices 106A through 106N) is shown in accordance with some embodiments in communication with a base station 102. The UE 106 may be a device with cellular communication capabilities, such as a mobile phone, handheld device, computer, laptop, tablet, smartwatch or other wearable device, or virtually any type of wireless device.

[0055] The UE 106 may include a processor (processing element) configured to execute program instructions stored in a memory. The UE 106 may perform any of the method embodiments described herein by executing such stored instructions. Alternatively or in addition, the UE 106 may include a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array), an integrated circuit, and / or any of various other possible hardware components configured to perform (e.g., individually or in combination) any of the method embodiments described herein or any portion of any of the method embodiments described herein.

[0056] The UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using one or more wireless communication protocols or technologies. In some embodiments, the UE 106 may be configured to communicate using, for example, NR or LTE using at least some shared radio components. As an additional possibility, the UE 106 may be configured to communicate using CDMA2000 (1xRTT / 1xEV-DO / HRPD / eHRPD) or LTE using a single shared radio component and / or GSM or LTE using a single shared radio component. The shared radio may be coupled to a single antenna or to multiple antennas (e.g., for MIMO) for performing wireless communications. Generally, the radio component may include any combination of a baseband processor, analog radio frequency (RF) signal processing circuitry (e.g., including filters, mixers, oscillators, amplifiers, etc.), or digital processing circuitry (e.g., for digital modulation and other digital processing). Similarly, the radio component may implement one or more receive chains and transmit chains using the aforementioned hardware. For example, the UE 106 may share one or more portions of a receive chain and / or transmit chain between multiple wireless communication technologies such as those discussed above.

[0057] In some embodiments, the UE 106 may include a separate transmit chain and / or receive chain (e.g., including separate antennas and other radio components) for each wireless communication protocol with which it is configured to communicate. As another possibility, the UE 106 may include one or more radio components shared between multiple wireless communication protocols, and one or more radio components used uniquely by a single wireless communication protocol. For example, the UE 106 may include a shared radio component for communicating using either LTE or 5GNR (or, in various possibilities, either LTE or 1xRTT, or either LTE or GSM), and independent radio components for communicating using each of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Other configurations are also possible.

[0058] Figure 3 1 shows an exemplary simplified block diagram of a communication device 106 according to some embodiments. Note that Figure 3 The block diagram of the communication device is only an example of a possible communication device. According to the embodiment, the communication device 106 can be a user equipment (UE) device, a mobile device or mobile station, a wireless device or wireless station, a desktop computer or computing device, a mobile computing device (e.g., a laptop computer, a notebook or portable computing device), a tablet computer and / or a combination of devices, in addition to other devices. As shown, the communication device 106 may include a group of components 300 configured to perform core functions. For example, the group of components can be implemented as a system on a chip (SOC), which may include parts for various purposes. Alternatively, the group of components 300 can be implemented as a separate component or group of components for various purposes. This group of components 300 can be coupled to various other circuits of the communication device 106 (e.g., communicatively; directly or indirectly).

[0059] For example, the communication device 106 may include various types of memory (e.g., including NAND flash memory 310), input / output interfaces such as a connector I / F 320 (e.g., for connecting to a computer system; a docking station; a charging station; input devices such as a microphone, a camera, a keyboard; output devices such as a speaker; etc.), a display 360 that may be integrated with the communication device 106 or external to it, and wireless communication circuitry 330 (e.g., for LTE, LTE-A, NR, UMTS, GSM, CDMA2000, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS, etc.). In some embodiments, the communication device 106 may include wired communication circuitry (not shown), such as, for example, a network interface card for Ethernet.

[0060] Wireless communication circuitry 330 may be (e.g., communicatively; directly or indirectly) coupled to one or more antennas, such as one or more antennas 335 as shown. Wireless communication circuitry 330 may include cellular communication circuitry and / or short- to medium-range wireless communication circuitry, and may include multiple receive chains and / or multiple transmit chains for receiving and / or transmitting multiple spatial streams, such as in a multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) configuration.

[0061] In some embodiments, as further described below, the cellular communication circuitry 330 can include one or more receive chains for multiple RATs (including and / or coupled to (e.g., communicatively; directly or indirectly) dedicated processors and / or radios (e.g., a first receive chain for LTE and a second receive chain for 5G NR). Furthermore, in some embodiments, the cellular communication circuitry 330 can include a single transmit chain that can switch between radios dedicated to specific RATs. For example, a first radio can be dedicated to a first RAT (e.g., LTE) and can communicate with a dedicated receive chain and a transmit chain shared with a second radio. The second radio can be dedicated to a second RAT (e.g., 5G NR). NR) and can communicate with a dedicated receive chain and a shared transmit chain. In some embodiments, the operating frequency of the second RAT can be millimeter wave. Because the operating frequency of millimeter wave systems is higher than the typical frequency in LTE systems, signals in the millimeter wave frequency range are severely attenuated by environmental factors. To help address this attenuation problem, millimeter wave systems typically utilize beamforming and include more antennas than LTE systems. These antennas can be organized into antenna arrays or panels composed of individual antenna elements. These antenna arrays can be coupled to the radio link.

[0062] The communication device 106 may also include and / or be configured for use with one or more user interface elements. User interface elements may include various elements such as a display 360 (which may be a touch screen display), a keyboard (which may be a separate keyboard or may be implemented as part of the touch screen display), a mouse, a microphone and / or speakers, one or more cameras, one or more buttons, and / or any of a variety of other elements capable of providing information to a user and / or receiving or interpreting user input.

[0063] The communication device 106 may also include one or more smart cards 345 having SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) functionality, such as one or more UICC cards (one or more Universal Integrated Circuit Cards) 345 .

[0064] As shown, the SOC 300 may include a processor 302 that may execute program instructions for the communication device 106 and a display circuit 304 that may perform graphics processing and provide display signals to a display 360. The one or more processors 302 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 340 (the MMU may be configured to receive addresses from the one or more processors 302 and translate those addresses into locations in memory (e.g., memory 306, read-only memory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310)), and / or to other circuits or devices such as the display circuit 304, wireless communication circuitry 330, connector I / F 320, and / or display 360. The MMU 340 may be configured to perform memory protection and page table translation or setup. In some embodiments, the MMU 340 may be included as part of the processor 302.

[0065] As described above, the communication device 106 can be configured to communicate using wireless and / or wired communication circuits. As described herein, the communication device 106 may include hardware and software components for implementing any of the various features and technologies described herein. For example, by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transient computer-readable memory medium), the processor 302 of the communication device 106 can be configured to implement part or all of the features described herein. Alternatively (or in addition thereto), the processor 302 can be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). Alternatively (or in addition thereto), in combination with one or more components in other components 300, 304, 306, 310, 320, 330, 340, 345, 350, 360, the processor 302 of the communication device 106 can be configured to implement part or all of the features described herein.

[0066] Furthermore, as described herein, processor 302 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, processor 302 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of processor 302. Furthermore, each integrated circuit may include circuits (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform one or more functions of processor 302.

[0067] Furthermore, as described herein, wireless communication circuitry 330 may include one or more processing elements. In other words, one or more processing elements may be included in wireless communication circuitry 330. Thus, wireless communication circuitry 330 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of wireless communication circuitry 330. Furthermore, each integrated circuit may include circuitry (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of wireless communication circuitry 330.

[0068] Figure 4 1 shows an exemplary block diagram of a base station 102 according to some embodiments. Note that Figure 4 The base station 102 is only one example of a possible base station. As shown, the base station 102 may include a processor 404 that may execute program instructions for the base station 102. The processor 404 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 440 or other circuit or device that may be configured to receive addresses from the processor 404 and translate those addresses into locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read-only memory (ROM) 450).

[0069] The base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. The network port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network and provide access to the telephone network as described above. Figure 1 and Figure 2 Multiple devices of the telephone network described in, such as UE device 106.

[0070] The network port 470 (or an additional network port) may also or alternatively be configured to couple to a cellular network, such as a core network of a cellular service provider. The core network may provide mobility-related services and / or other services to multiple devices, such as the UE device 106. In some cases, the network port 470 may couple to a telephone network via the core network, and / or the core network may provide a telephone network (e.g., in other UE devices served by the cellular service provider).

[0071] In some embodiments, base station 102 may be a next-generation base station, such as a 5G New Radio (5G NR) base station or "gNB." In such embodiments, base station 102 may be connected to a legacy evolved packet core (EPC) network and / or to an NR core (NRC) / 5G core (5GC) network. Furthermore, base station 102 may be considered a 5G NR cell and may include one or more transition and reception points (TRPs). Furthermore, a UE capable of operating in accordance with 5G NR may be connected to one or more TRPs within one or more gNBs.

[0072] Base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434 and possibly multiple antennas. The at least one antenna 434 may be configured to function as a wireless transceiver and may be further configured to communicate with UE device 106 via radio 430. Antenna 434 communicates with radio 430 via communication chain 432. Communication chain 432 may be a receive chain, a transmit chain, or both. Radio 430 may be configured to communicate via various wireless communication standards, including but not limited to 5G NR, LTE, LTE-A, GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000, Wi-Fi, and the like.

[0073] The base station 102 may be configured to perform wireless communications using multiple wireless communication standards. In some cases, the base station 102 may include multiple radios that enable the base station 102 to communicate according to multiple wireless communication technologies. For example, as one possibility, the base station 102 may include an LTE radio component for performing communications according to LTE and a 5G NR radio component for performing communications according to 5G NR. In this case, the base station 102 may be able to operate as both an LTE base station and a 5G NR base station. When the base station 102 supports millimeter waves, the 5G NR radio component may be coupled to one or more millimeter wave antenna arrays or panels. As another possibility, the base station 102 may include a multimode radio component capable of performing communications according to any one of multiple wireless communication technologies (e.g., 5G NR and LTE, 5G NR and Wi-Fi, LTE and Wi-Fi, LTE and UMTS, LTE and CDMA2000, UMTS and GSM, etc.).

[0074] As further described later herein, BS 102 may include hardware and software components for implementing or supporting specific implementations of the features described herein. The processor 404 of the base station 102 may be configured to implement or support a portion or all of the embodiments of the methods described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively, the processor 404 may be configured as a programmable hardware element such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array), or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit), or a combination thereof. Alternatively (or in addition), in combination with one or more of the other components 430, 432, 434, 440, 450, 460, and 470, the processor 404 of the base station 102 may be configured to implement or support a portion or all of the embodiments of the features described herein.

[0075] Furthermore, as described herein, one or more processors 404 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, processor 404 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of processor 404. Furthermore, each integrated circuit may include circuitry (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of one or more processors 404.

[0076] Furthermore, as described herein, radio 430 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, radio 430 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of radio 430. Furthermore, each integrated circuit may include circuitry (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of radio 430.

[0077] Figure 5 An exemplary simplified block diagram of a cellular communication circuit according to some embodiments is shown. Note that Figure 5 The block diagram of the cellular communication circuitry is only one example of possible cellular communication circuitry; other circuitry, such as circuitry that includes or is coupled to sufficient antennas for different RATs to perform uplink activities using separate antennas, or circuitry that includes or is coupled to fewer antennas, e.g., circuitry that can be shared between multiple RATs, is also possible. According to some embodiments, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may be included in a communication device such as the communication device 106 described above. As described above, the communication device 106 may be a user equipment (UE) device, a mobile device or mobile station, a wireless device or wireless station, a desktop computer or computing device, a mobile computing device (e.g., a laptop, notebook, or portable computing device), a tablet computer, and / or a combination of devices, among other devices.

[0078] The cellular communication circuitry 330 may be (e.g., communicatively; directly or indirectly) coupled to one or more antennas, such as antennas 335a-b and 336 as shown. In some embodiments, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include dedicated receive chains for multiple RATs (including and / or coupled to (e.g., communicatively; directly or indirectly) dedicated processors and / or radio components (e.g., a first receive chain for LTE and a second receive chain for 5G NR). For example, Figure 5 As shown, the cellular communication circuit 330 may include a first modem 510 and a second modem 520. The first modem 510 may be configured for communication according to a first RAT (e.g., such as LTE or LTE-A), and the second modem 520 may be configured for communication according to a second RAT (e.g., such as 5G NR).

[0079] As shown, the first modem 510 may include one or more processors 512 and a memory 516 in communication with the processor 512. The modem 510 may communicate with a radio frequency (RF) front end 530. The RF front end 530 may include circuitry for transmitting and receiving radio signals. For example, the RF front end 530 may include receive circuitry (RX) 532 and transmit circuitry (TX) 534. In some embodiments, the receive circuitry 532 may communicate with a downlink (DL) front end 550, which may include circuitry for receiving radio signals via antenna 335a.

[0080] Similarly, the second modem 520 may include one or more processors 522 and a memory 526 in communication with the processor 522. The modem 520 may communicate with an RF front end 540. The RF front end 540 may include circuitry for transmitting and receiving radio signals. For example, the RF front end 540 may include receive circuitry 542 and transmit circuitry 544. In some embodiments, the receive circuitry 542 may communicate with a DL front end 560, which may include circuitry for receiving radio signals via the antenna 335b.

[0081] In some embodiments, the switch 570 can couple the transmit circuitry 534 to the uplink (UL) front end 572. Furthermore, the switch 570 can couple the transmit circuitry 544 to the UL front end 572. The UL front end 572 can include circuitry for transmitting radio signals via the antenna 336. Thus, when the cellular communication circuitry 330 receives an instruction to transmit according to a first RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain including the transmit circuitry 534 and the UL front end 572), the switch 570 can be switched to a first state that allows the first modem 510 to transmit signals according to the first RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain including the transmit circuitry 534 and the UL front end 572). Similarly, when the cellular communication circuitry 330 receives an instruction to transmit according to a second RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain including the transmit circuitry 544 and the UL front end 572), the switch 570 can be switched to a second state that allows the second modem 520 to transmit signals according to the second RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain including the transmit circuitry 544 and the UL front end 572).

[0082] As described herein, the first modem 510 and / or the second modem 520 may include hardware and software components for implementing any of the various features and techniques described herein. For example, by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium), the processors 512, 522 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein. Alternatively (or in addition), the processors 512, 522 may be configured as programmable hardware elements, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). Alternatively (or in addition), in combination with one or more of the other components 530, 532, 534, 540, 542, 544, 550, 570, 572, 335, and 336, the processors 512, 522 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein.

[0083] Furthermore, as described herein, processors 512, 522 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, processors 512, 522 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of processors 512, 522. Furthermore, each integrated circuit may include circuits (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of processors 512, 522.

[0084] In some embodiments, the cellular communication circuit 330 may include only one transmit / receive chain. For example, the cellular communication circuit 330 may not include the modem 520, the RF front end 540, the DL front end 560, and / or the antenna 335b. As another example, the cellular communication circuit 330 may not include the modem 510, the RF front end 530, the DL front end 550, and / or the antenna 335a. In some embodiments, the cellular communication circuit 330 may also not include the switch 570, and the RF front end 530 or the RF front end 540 may communicate with the UL front end 572, for example, directly.

[0085] Figure 6 An exemplary block diagram of a network element 600 according to some embodiments is shown. According to some embodiments, the network element 600 may implement one or more logical functions / entities of a cellular core network, such as a mobility management entity (MME), a serving gateway (S-GW), an access and management function (AMF), a session management function (SMF), a network slice quota management (NSQM) function, etc. It should be noted that Figure 6 The network element 600 is only one example of a possible network element 600. As shown, the core network element 600 may include one or more processors 604 that may execute program instructions for the core network element 600. The processors 604 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 640 (which may be configured to receive addresses from the processors 604 and translate these addresses into locations in memory (e.g., memory 660 and read-only memory (ROM) 650)), or to other circuits or devices.

[0086] The network element 600 may include at least one network port 670. The network port 670 may be configured to couple to one or more base stations and / or other cellular network entities and / or devices. The network element 600 may communicate with the base stations (e.g., eNB / gNB) and / or other network entities / devices using any of a variety of communication protocols and / or interfaces.

[0087] As further described later herein, network element 600 may include hardware and software components for implementing or supporting the implementation of the features described herein. The processor 604 of core network element 600 may be configured to implement or support the implementation of part or all of the methods described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively, processor 604 may be configured as a programmable hardware element such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit), or a combination thereof.

[0088] Now go to Figure 7 , according to various aspects of the prior art, illustrates exemplary proposed PTRS structures 710 / 720 / 730 for OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM transmissions 700. In each of structures 710 / 720 / 730, the vertical axis represents frequency, and the horizontal axis represents time. Structure 710 illustrates an OFDM signal, where the structure begins with a full-frequency transmission of PDCCH 712, followed by a full-frequency transmission of DMRS 714. PTRS 716 is then transmitted on evenly spaced designated frequency bands, while PDSCH 718 is transmitted over the remaining frequency bandwidth.

[0089] Structure 720 shows another exemplary OFDM signal, where the structure begins with a full-frequency transmission of PDCCH 712, followed by a full-frequency transmission of DMRS 714. Next, PTRS 724 is transmitted on a single frequency band in the center, while PDSCH 722 is transmitted over the remaining frequency bandwidth.

[0090] Structure 730 illustrates another exemplary DFT-s-OFDM signal, where the structure begins with a full-frequency transmission of PDCCH 712, followed by a full-frequency transmission of DMRS 714. PTRS 734 is then transmitted in groups of symbols distributed across the PDSCH 732 transmission. As further shown in block 742, according to exemplary structure 730, a PTRS group includes four PTRS symbols. As further shown in block 744, according to exemplary structure 730, there are eight PTRS groups per DFT-s-OFDM symbol. As further shown in block 746, according to exemplary structure 730, PDSCH symbols are allocated among the PTRS groups.

[0091] In structure 720, although the receiver is able to estimate the phase noise at the sub-OFDM symbol level in an implementation-specific manner, the receiver processing is still somewhat complicated, for example, due to the fact that the time domain representation of the PTRS signal 724 may not have any structure. Therefore, further benefits can be obtained through different PTRS designs, such as the design proposed in the embodiments described herein.

[0092] PTRS insertion scheme

[0093] Figure 8 An exemplary PTRS insertion scheme 800 for CP-OFDM transmission according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown. Figure 8 As shown, data symbols 802 are spread uniformly over a given frequency bandwidth and are divided into evenly spaced tones 808. In the exemplary scheme 800, tones 1-12 and 25-36 represent data symbols 802, while tones 13-14 and 23-24 are reserved as null tones 810 and used as guard bands, and tones 15-22 are used as PTRS symbols 812 for spreading the PTRS sequence 804. It should be understood that the use of null tones 810 is optional and can be omitted in some embodiments, for example, if there is no need to increase receiver processing capabilities. In NR designs, CP-OFDM waveforms enjoy several benefits over DFT-s-OFDM waveforms. For example, in the downlink, CP-OFDM waveforms allow multiplexing of various signals / channels (such as CSI-RS and PDSCH), while in the uplink, CP-OFDM waveforms allow multiplexing of UCI (uplink control information) and PUSCH. According to the embodiments disclosed herein, a PTRS insertion scheme in which a DFT-s-OFDM waveform is embedded within a CP-OFDM signal retains the benefits of CP-OFDM while also benefiting from the improved phase noise estimation / compensation possible with DFT-s-OFDM-based PTRS.

[0094] The PTRS signal represented as a PTRS sequence 804 can be spread, for example, via a DFT spreading block 806, such as embedded in an OFDM signal using DFT-s-OFDM technology, and transmitted on the above-mentioned PTRS symbols 812 located at frequency tones 15-22 before applying IFFT and adding CP at box 814.

[0095] As described above, according to some embodiments, a PDSCH / PUSCH allocation may consist of N PRBs, with N_b PTRS bands within each of the N PRBs; and N_c contiguous PRBs within each PTRS band, and the N_b PTRS bands may be distributed, for example, evenly across the N PRBs. With the introduction of the PTRS bands, the UE receiver may then perform the following: 1.) extract each band containing the PTRS band using a narrowband filter for the PTRS band of input orthogonal (IQ) samples, and then 2.) utilize time-domain (or frequency-domain) processing to obtain a time-domain PTRS signal, which may be subject to phase noise effects at both the gNB and the UE. However, note that with the proposed waveform 800, phase noise at the gNB / UE does not destroy the orthogonality of the signals mapped to different time samples.

[0096] According to some embodiments, once phase noise estimates for sub-time units are obtained from each PTRS band, they can be combined with estimates from other PTRS bands to obtain more reliable estimates. Alternatively, a joint estimation process can be performed across all PTRS bands to obtain a joint estimate of the phase noise for each sub-time unit. Other alternatives are also possible, such as grouping of PTRS bands, etc. After the sub-time units are established, interpolation and / or smoothing can be used to obtain estimates for even finer time units. Using any method, the phase noise estimates for the sub-time units are then applied to the IQ samples to compensate for the phase noise, and then an FFT can be applied to the compensated signal for further frequency domain processing. In order to allow UEs to be reused on the same resources and / or to reduce signaling overhead, the positions of the corresponding PTRS bands can be derived relative to the common resource blocks.

[0097] Since PTRS for DFT-S-OFDM provides multiple opportunities to estimate phase noise, if the time domain formula is used, it can be assumed that DFT spreading (e.g., with N_t points) is applied to the PTRS sequence at each OFDM symbol where PTRS is present, and the resulting signal is mapped into N_t tones through N_c PRBs, where N_t≤12×N_c. If N_t<12×N_c, some guard tones / null tones can be reserved at the two edges of the continuous tones to which the PTRS sequence is mapped. In one example, N_c=4 and N_t=40, so within the 8 PRBs of the PTRS band, the first 4 tones and the last 4 tones can be reserved and not used by PTRS or any other signal / data, which makes narrowband filtering easier at the receiver, as described above.

[0098] There are a variety of signal options that can be used for the following: PTRS signals, such as LTE / NR spread Zadoff-chu (ZC) signals; non-spread ZC signals, such as constant amplitude zero autocorrelation waveforms (i.e., CAZAC sequences), which have a flat time domain representation and also a flat frequency domain representation; Gold sequences; or π / 2-BPSK sequences, such as those derived from Gold sequences. According to some embodiments, the flat time and frequency domain representations of non-spread ZC signals make them ideal for such uses.

[0099] Orthogonal covering sequence

[0100] Figure 9 An exemplary orthogonal cover scheme 900 / 950 for multiple PTRS ports (e.g., such as may be used in a MIMO transmission scheme with multiple layers associated with different frequency sources and therefore having different phase noise) according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown. A PTRS port can be understood as a logical port defined based on a combination of available antennas, antenna elements, beams, layers, etc., which can be used to transmit or receive signals. In scheme 900, PTRS sequence 904 is covered by orthogonal sequence 902 (i.e., [++++++++]) before being spread by DFT spreading block 906, while in scheme 950, PTRS sequence 954 is covered by orthogonal sequence 952 (i.e., [+-+-+-+-]) before being spread by DFT spreading block 956. It will be appreciated that as long as orthogonal cover sequences are used, such as sequences derived from an identity matrix, such as a Walsh-Hadamard sequence, a Fourier sequence derived from a Fourier transform matrix, etc., PTRS for multiple UEs can be multiplexed together on the same PRB.

[0101] Orthogonalized time domain resource partitioning

[0102] Figure 10 An exemplary PTRS insertion scheme for CP-OFDM transmission using block 1000 is shown in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 10 As shown, according to some embodiments, it is also possible that different PTRS ports occupy different "blocks" in the time domain. For example, in N_t time domain samples, port 1 may occupy samples 1, 3, 5, 7, ..., while port 2 occupies samples 2, 4, 6, 8, ...; or port 1 may occupy samples 1-4, 9-12, ..., while port 2 occupies samples 5-8, 13-16, ...; or port 1 may occupy samples 1-4, 13-16, ..., while port 2 occupies samples 7-10, 19-22, .... In other words, the time domain samples may be spaced such that there are gaps between the "blocks" of resources occupied by different PTRS ports.

[0103] Generally, for a given PTRS port, the PTRS sequence 1004 can be characterized by several parameters, as follows:

[0104] - an initial shift (1008), which may be predetermined based on a set of rules specifying a first PTRS sequence sample that is non-zero;

[0105] - Block Size (1010), which gives the block of non-zero adjacent PTRS sequence samples;

[0106] - Inter-block gap (1012), which gives the number of adjacent PTRS sequence samples that are zero; and

[0107] - Total number of blocks (1002), which can be used to limit the number of blocks to be less than: floor[(Nt-(initial shift)) / ((block size)+(inter-block gap))]

[0108] As can now be appreciated, using these techniques for the downlink, the gNB can multiplex the PTRS transmissions of two (or more) UEs, with the PTRS of a first UE occupying some blocks and the PTRS of a second UE occupying other blocks, before applying DFT spreading at block 1106. The same multiplexing techniques can also be used for the uplink, e.g., transmissions from the UE to the gNB.

[0109] Figure 11A and Figure 11B An exemplary PTRS port multiplexing scheme according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown. Note that not all parameters are necessary to fully characterize a PTRS sequence. For example, in some embodiments, for port 1, the initial shift may be set to 0, and for port 2, the initial shift may be set to "block size", such as Figure 10 In another example, the number of blocks is derived from [(Nt-(initial shift)) / ((block size)+(inter-block gap))], also as Figure 10 In another example, the "inter-block gap" can be set to be equal to the "block size", as shown in Figure 10 Also like Figure 11A shown.

[0110] exist Figure 11A In the example 1100 of FIGURE 1, the block position (1102) for port 1 may be different from the block position (1104) for port 2, for example, due to the use of different initial shift values, and no samples are reserved for use by the other UE. Figure 11A In the example of 1120, the block position (1122) for port 1 may also be different from the block position (1124) for port 2, for example due to the use of different initial shift values, but in contrast to example 1120, some samples (1126) are also reserved for use by another UE. Figure 11A In example 1140, it is demonstrated that even when the block (1142) for port 1 is the same as the block (1144) for port 2, multiple UEs can still be multiplexed, for example via the use of orthogonalized cover sequences (e.g., Walsh-Hadamard sequences).

[0111] It is possible to set the "inter-block gap" (1012) to be larger than the "block size" (1010) to help handle crosstalk caused by, for example, multipath between PTRS ports. Figure 11B As shown, in one example, port 1 and port 3 have an "inter-block gap" value = 6 and a "block size" = 4; port 3 starts with an initial shift of "inter-block gap" - 1; and Figure 11B In the example, port 1 starts with an initial shift of 0, so that the crosstalk between port 1 and port 3 due to multipath spreading plus the "block size" is no greater than the "inter-block gap", and the phase estimate of each PTRS port does not need to consider the crosstalk from other PTRS ports. It will be appreciated that any combination of the above rules may be used according to certain embodiments.

[0112] It is also possible, for example, to use Figure 11B In the scheme shown, orthogonal cover and orthogonalized time domain partitioning are used in combination to derive even more PTRS ports, whereby a first orthogonal cover sequence (1162) (e.g., ++++) is used for port 1, and a different second orthogonal cover sequence (1164) (e.g., +-+-) is used for port 2 (i.e., the port sharing the overlap block), while a first orthogonal cover sequence (1166) is used for port 3, and a different second orthogonal cover sequence (1168) is used for port 4. It is worth noting that, because Figure 11B In the example of FIG, ports 1 / 3 and ports 2 / 4 do not share resources, so similar orthogonal cover sequences can be used for ports 1 / 3 and ports 2 / 4 without causing cross-port interference.

[0113] Multiplexing of PTRS and DMRS

[0114] According to some other implementations, there may be various options to multiplex the PTRS band and DMRS:

[0115] - Option 1 for PTRS and PDSCH / PUSCH DMRS: DMRS and PTRS bands reside on different OFDM symbols.

[0116] Option 2 for PTRS and PDSCH / PUSCH DMRS: DMRS and PTRS bands can reside on the same OFDM symbol. In some implementations, this can be achieved by moving DMRS out of the PRBs occupied by the PTRS band. (With this option 2, the phase noise on the symbols where DMRS resides can also be estimated and compensated at the sub-OFDM symbol level, which can lead to better channel estimates.) In one example:

[0117] N = 3;

[0118] N_b=1;

[0119] N_c=1;

[0120] N_t=8.

[0121] In this example, data symbols can be mapped directly to tones 1-12, 25-36; 8 samples of PTRS (e.g., with a Gold sequence) are first mapped to a DFT spreading block, and the output of the DFT spreading block can be mapped to 8 tones (e.g., tones 15-22). Note that in this example, tones 13-14 and 23-24 are null tones to facilitate narrowband filtering using the middle PRBs.

[0122] Figure 12 Another exemplary scheme 1200 for multiplexing PTRS and demodulation reference signal (DMRS) signals according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown. Figure 12 In the example shown, the PRB (1202) carrying the DMRS is carried in the first and fifth symbols, while the PDSCH / PUSCH data (1210) is carried on the second, third, fourth, sixth and seventh symbols, and the four designated frequency subcarriers transmit the PTRS data (1212) on all time slot symbols. Thus, according to this embodiment, at the frequency position of the PTRS band, the DMRS symbols may be replaced by PTRS information instead. It should be understood that, according to a given embodiment, the PTRS data (1212) may include one or more PTRS signals. For example, the PTRS data 1212 may include a single PTRS signal for two PTRS bands (i.e., where the same PTRS signal is used equally for both PTRS bands, e.g., 1212a and 1212b), or the PTRS data 1212 may include a scenario where each PTRS band (e.g., 1212a and 1212b) may carry its own (e.g., different) PTRS signal. As Figure 12 As shown, the horizontal axis represents time (1206), and the vertical axis represents frequency (1204).

[0123] Figure 13A and Figure 13BA method for wireless communication according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown. Figure 13A , an exemplary receiver behavior 1300 is described. First, at step 1302, a physical shared channel allocation is obtained, where the shared channel allocation indicates a plurality of physical resource blocks (PRBs) and a plurality of phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) bands within the PRBs. For example, a PDSCH / PUSCH allocation may be obtained, where the PDSCH / PUSCH allocation includes: N PRBs; N_b PTRS bands within the N PRBs; and N_c consecutive PRBs within each PTRS band, where the N_b PTRS bands are distributed within the N PRBs, for example, evenly or substantially evenly distributed within the N PRBs.

[0124] Next, at step 1304, a signal allocated based on a physical shared channel is received. Next, at step 1306, the received signal may be filtered to extract one or more PTRS frequency bands containing one or more PTRS signals. For example, a narrowband filter may be used to filter the PTRS frequency bands of the input IQ samples to extract each frequency band containing a PTRS frequency band.

[0125] At step 1308, one or more frequency bands may be processed to obtain one or more time-domain PTRS signals. For example, time-domain (or frequency-domain) processing may be applied to obtain one or more time-domain PTRS signals (which experience phase noise effects at both the gNB and the UE). At step 1310, a phase noise estimate may be performed for each PTRS frequency band of the one or more time-domain PTRS signals. For example, a phase noise estimate may be obtained for a sub-OFDM symbol time unit from each PTRS frequency band. According to some embodiments, as part of step 1310, the process may optionally combine the phase noise estimates from two or more PTRS frequency bands at step 1312. Similarly, at step 1314, the combined phase noise estimate may optionally be interpolated and / or smoothed, for example, if a finer time unit, such as a sub-OFDM symbol time unit, is desired. Next, at step 1316, the phase noise estimate may be applied to the received signal to generate a noise-compensated signal. For example, the system may apply the phase noise estimate to IQ samples to generate a noise-compensated signal. At step 1318, an FFT may be applied to the noise-compensated signal for further frequency domain processing.

[0126] exist Figure 13B, an exemplary transmitter behavior 1350 is described. First, at step 1352, a physical shared channel allocation is obtained, where, as described above, the shared channel allocation may indicate one or more of the following: a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs), a number of PTRS bands within the PRBs, and / or a specification of the number of contiguous PRBs in each band, etc.

[0127] Next, various optional processing steps may be applied to the one or more PTRS signals at the transmitter before they are transmitted to one or more receiver devices. For example, at step 1354, guard tones may be placed at the edges (e.g., around) of consecutive PRB chunks within the PTRS band. At step 1356, at least one of the one or more PTRS signals may replace a DMRS on one or more resource elements of the PRB. At step 1358, two or more non-overlapping PTRS bands comprising at least two PTRS ports may be used for transmission. At step 1360, two or more PTRS ports may be multiplexed, for example, using one or more orthogonalized cover sequences. At step 1362, the PTRS band may then be embedded in a CP-OFDM transmission, for example, using DFT-s-OFDM. Finally, at step 1364, the transmitter may transmit the embedded one or more PTRS signals to one or more receiving units on a physical shared channel allocation. Note that in Figure 13A and Figure 13B , the dashed line around the box indicates optional steps that can be performed.

[0128] Example

[0129] In the following sections, additional exemplary embodiments are provided.

[0130] According to embodiment 1, a method for noise compensation in a wireless system is disclosed, the method comprising: obtaining a physical shared channel allocation, wherein the physical shared channel allocation comprises a plurality of physical resource blocks (PRBs) and one or more phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) bands within the PRBs, wherein the one or more PTRS bands comprise one or more PTRS signals; receiving a signal based on the physical shared channel allocation; filtering the received signal to extract the one or more PTRS bands; processing the one or more PTRS bands to obtain one or more time domain PTRS signals; estimating the phase noise of each PTRS band of the one or more time domain PTRS signals; and applying the phase noise estimate to the received signal to produce a noise-compensated signal.

[0131] Embodiment 2 includes the subject matter of embodiment 1, further comprising combining phase noise estimates from two or more PTRS bands to obtain a phase noise estimate for the PTRS band.

[0132] Embodiment 3 includes the subject matter of embodiment 1, further comprising applying a fast Fourier transform to the noise compensated signal to generate a frequency domain processed received signal.

[0133] Embodiment 4 includes the subject matter of embodiment 1, wherein the PRBs form a plurality of contiguous PRBs within each PTRS frequency band.

[0134] Embodiment 5 includes the subject matter of embodiment 4, wherein the guard tones are placed at edges of consecutive PRBs.

[0135] Embodiment 6 includes the subject matter of embodiment 1, wherein the one or more PTRS frequency bands are evenly distributed across the PRBs.

[0136] Embodiment 7 includes the subject matter of embodiment 1, wherein at least one of the one or more PTRS signals replaces a DMRS signal on one or more resource elements of a PRB.

[0137] Embodiment 8 includes the subject matter of embodiment 1, further comprising interpolating phase noise estimates from two or more PTRS bands to obtain a smoothed phase noise estimate for the PTRS band.

[0138] Embodiment 9 includes the subject matter of embodiment 1, wherein two or more non-overlapping PTRS frequency bands are received on at least two PTRS ports.

[0139] Embodiment 10 includes the subject matter of embodiment 1, wherein orthogonalized cover sequences are used to multiplex the PTRS bands.

[0140] Embodiment 11 includes a wireless device comprising: an antenna; a radio component operably coupled to the antenna; and a processor operably coupled to the radio component, wherein the wireless device is configured to compensate for noise in a wireless system by performing operations including: obtaining a physical shared channel allocation, wherein the physical shared channel allocation includes a plurality of physical resource blocks (PRBs) and one or more phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) bands within the PRBs, wherein the one or more PTRS bands include one or more PTRS signals; receiving a signal based on the physical shared channel allocation; filtering the received signal to extract the one or more PTRS bands; processing the one or more PTRS bands to obtain one or more time-domain PTRS signals; estimating phase noise for each PTRS band of the one or more time-domain PTRS signals; and applying the phase noise estimate to the received signal to produce a noise-compensated signal.

[0141] Embodiment 12 includes the subject matter of embodiment 11, wherein the wireless device is further configured to combine phase noise estimates from two or more PTRS bands to obtain a final phase noise estimate for the PTRS band.

[0142] Embodiment 13 includes the subject matter of embodiment 11, wherein the wireless device is further configured to apply a fast Fourier transform to the noise compensated signal to generate a frequency domain processed received signal.

[0143] Embodiment 14 includes the subject matter of embodiment 11, wherein the PRBs form a plurality of contiguous PRBs within each PTRS frequency band.

[0144] Embodiment 15 includes the subject matter of embodiment 14, wherein the guard tones are placed at edges of consecutive PRBs.

[0145] Embodiment 16 includes the subject matter of embodiment 11, wherein the one or more PTRS frequency bands are evenly distributed across the PRBs.

[0146] Embodiment 17 includes the subject matter of embodiment 11, wherein at least one of the one or more PTRS signals replaces a DMRS signal on one or more resource elements of a PRB.

[0147] Embodiment 18 includes the subject matter of embodiment 11, wherein the wireless device is further configured to interpolate phase noise estimates from two or more PTRS bands to obtain a smoothed phase noise estimate for the PTRS band.

[0148] Embodiment 19 includes the subject matter of embodiment 11, wherein two or more non-overlapping PTRS frequency bands are received on at least two PTRS ports.

[0149] Embodiment 20 includes the subject matter of embodiment 11, wherein orthogonalized cover sequences are used to multiplex the PTRS bands.

[0150] Embodiment 21 includes a non-volatile computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a device to: obtain a physical shared channel allocation, wherein the physical shared channel allocation includes a plurality of physical resource blocks (PRBs) and one or more phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) bands within the PRBs, wherein the one or more PTRS bands include one or more PTRS signals; receive a signal based on the physical shared channel allocation; filter the received signal to extract the one or more PTRS bands; process the one or more PTRS bands to obtain one or more time-domain PTRS signals; estimate the phase noise of each PTRS band of the one or more time-domain PTRS signals; and apply the phase noise estimate to the received signal to produce a noise-compensated signal.

[0151] Embodiment 22 includes the subject matter of embodiment 21, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to combine phase noise estimates from two or more PTRS frequency bands to obtain a final phase noise estimate for the PTRS frequency band.

[0152] Embodiment 23 includes the subject matter of embodiment 21, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to apply a fast Fourier transform to the noise compensated signal to generate a frequency domain processed received signal.

[0153] Embodiment 24 includes the subject matter of embodiment 21, wherein the PRBs form a plurality of contiguous PRBs within each PTRS band.

[0154] Embodiment 25 includes the subject matter of embodiment 24, wherein the guard tones are placed at edges of consecutive PRBs.

[0155] Embodiment 26 includes the subject matter of embodiment 21, wherein the one or more PTRS frequency bands are evenly distributed across the PRBs.

[0156] Embodiment 27 includes the subject matter of embodiment 21, wherein at least one of the one or more PTRS signals replaces a DMRS signal on one or more resource elements of a PRB.

[0157] Embodiment 28 includes the subject matter of embodiment 21, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to interpolate phase noise estimates from two or more PTRS frequency bands to obtain a smoothed phase noise estimate for the PTRS frequency band.

[0158] Embodiment 29 includes the subject matter of embodiment 21, wherein two or more non-overlapping PTRS frequency bands are received on at least two PTRS ports.

[0159] Embodiment 30 includes the subject matter of embodiment 21, wherein orthogonalized cover sequences are used to multiplex the PTRS bands.

[0160] Embodiment 31 includes a method for noise compensation in a wireless system, the method comprising: obtaining a physical shared channel allocation, wherein the physical shared channel allocation includes a plurality of physical resource blocks (PRBs) and one or more phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) bands within the PRBs, wherein the one or more PTRS bands include one or more PTRS signals; embedding the one or more PTRS bands in a CP-OFDM-based transmission; and transmitting the one or more PTRS bands in the embedded CP-OFDM-based transmission to one or more receiving units on the physical shared channel allocation.

[0161] Embodiment 32 includes the subject matter of embodiment 31, wherein embedding one or more PTRS frequency bands comprises embedding using DFT-s-OFDM.

[0162] Embodiment 33 includes the subject matter of embodiment 31, wherein the PRBs form a plurality of contiguous PRBs within each PTRS band.

[0163] Embodiment 34 includes the subject matter of embodiment 33, wherein guard tones are placed at edges of consecutive PRBs.

[0164] Embodiment 35 includes the subject matter of embodiment 31, wherein the plurality of PTRS frequency bands are evenly distributed across the PRBs.

[0165] Embodiment 36 includes the subject matter of embodiment 31, wherein at least one of the one or more PTRS signals replaces a DMRS signal on one or more resource elements of a PRB.

[0166] Embodiment 37 includes the subject matter of embodiment 31, wherein two or more non-overlapping PTRS frequency bands are transmitted on at least two PTRS ports.

[0167] Embodiment 38 includes the subject matter of embodiment 31, wherein orthogonalized cover sequences are used to multiplex the PTRS bands.

[0168] Embodiment 39 includes the subject matter of embodiment 37, wherein orthogonalized cover sequences are used to multiplex the PTRS bands.

[0169] Example 40 comprises a method comprising any act or combination of acts as substantially described herein in the detailed description.

[0170] Example 41 comprises a method substantially as described herein with reference to each or any combination of the figures included herein or with reference to each or any combination of the paragraphs in the detailed description.

[0171] Embodiment 42 comprises a wireless device configured to perform any action or combination of actions as substantially described herein in a detailed description included in the wireless device.

[0172] Embodiment 43 comprises a wireless station configured to perform any action or combination of actions as substantially described herein in the detailed embodiments included in the wireless station.

[0173] Embodiment 44 includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause performance of any action or combination of actions as substantially described herein in the detailed description.

[0174] Embodiment 45 includes an integrated circuit configured to perform any action or combination of actions as substantially described herein in the detailed description.

[0175] Yet another example embodiment may include a method comprising performing, by a device, any or all of the foregoing examples.

[0176] Yet another example embodiment may include a non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium comprising program instructions that, when executed at a device, cause the device to implement any or all portions of any of the foregoing example embodiments.

[0177] Yet another exemplary embodiment may include a computer program comprising instructions for carrying out any or all portions of any of the aforementioned examples.

[0178] Yet another exemplary embodiment may include an apparatus comprising means for performing any or all of the elements of any of the aforementioned embodiments.

[0179] Yet another exemplary embodiment may include an apparatus comprising a processor configured to cause the device to perform any or all elements of any of the aforementioned exemplary embodiments.

[0180] It is understood that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be clearly stated to users.

[0181] The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in any of a variety of forms. For example, some embodiments may be implemented as computer-implemented methods, computer-readable storage media, or computer systems. Other embodiments may be implemented using one or more custom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs. Other embodiments may be implemented using one or more programmable hardware elements such as FPGAs.

[0182] In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may be configured such that it stores program instructions and / or data, wherein the program instructions, if executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform a method, such as any one of the method embodiments described herein, or any combination of the method embodiments described herein, or any subset of any method embodiments described herein, or any combination of such subsets.

[0183] In some embodiments, a device (e.g., UE 106, BS 102, network element 600) may be configured to include a processor (or a group of processors) and a memory medium, wherein the memory medium stores program instructions, wherein the processor is configured to read and execute the program instructions from the memory medium, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement any of the various method implementations described herein (or any combination of the method implementations described herein, or any subset of any method implementation of the method implementations described herein, or any combination of such subsets). The device may be implemented in any of various forms.

[0184] Although the above embodiments have been described in considerable detail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to encompass all such variations and modifications.

Claims

1. A method for noise compensation in a wireless system, the method comprising: Obtaining a physical shared channel allocation, wherein the physical shared channel allocation comprises a plurality of physical resource blocks (PRBs) and one or more phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) bands within the PRBs, wherein the one or more PTRS bands comprise one or more PTRS signals; receiving a signal allocated based on the physical shared channel; filtering the received signal to extract the one or more PTRS frequency bands; processing the one or more PTRS frequency bands to obtain one or more time-domain PTRS signals; estimating phase noise for each PTRS frequency band of the one or more time-domain PTRS signals, including combining phase noise estimates from two or more PTRS frequency bands to obtain a phase noise estimate for the PTRS frequency band; as well as The phase noise estimate is applied to the received signal to produce a noise-compensated signal. 2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising applying a fast Fourier transform to the noise-compensated signal to generate a frequency-domain processed received signal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the PRBs form a plurality of consecutive PRBs within each PTRS frequency band. The method according to claim 3 , wherein guard tones are placed at the edges of the consecutive PRBs. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more PTRS frequency bands are evenly distributed across the PRBs. 6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more PTRS signals replaces a DMRS signal on one or more resource elements of the PRB.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising interpolating phase noise estimates from two or more PTRS frequency bands to obtain a smoothed phase noise estimate for the PTRS frequency band.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein two or more non-overlapping PTRS frequency bands are received on at least two PTRS ports.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the PTRS frequency bands are multiplexed using orthogonalized cover sequences.

10. A wireless device, comprising: antenna; a radio operatively coupled to the antenna; and a processor operatively coupled to the radio, The wireless device is configured to compensate for noise in a wireless system by performing operations including: Obtaining a physical shared channel allocation, wherein the physical shared channel allocation comprises a plurality of physical resource blocks (PRBs) and one or more phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) bands within the PRBs, wherein the one or more PTRS bands comprise one or more PTRS signals; receiving a signal allocated based on the physical shared channel; filtering the received signal to extract the one or more PTRS frequency bands; processing the one or more PTRS frequency bands to obtain one or more time-domain PTRS signals; estimating phase noise for each PTRS frequency band of the one or more time-domain PTRS signals; as well as applying the phase noise estimate to the received signal to produce a noise-compensated signal, Wherein the PRBs form a plurality of consecutive PRBs within each PTRS band, and wherein guard tones are placed at edges of the consecutive PRBs.

11. The wireless device of claim 10, wherein the wireless device is further configured to combine phase noise estimates from two or more PTRS frequency bands to obtain a final phase noise estimate for the PTRS frequency band.

12. The wireless device of claim 10, wherein the wireless device is further configured to apply a fast Fourier transform to the noise-compensated signal to generate a frequency-domain processed received signal.

13. The wireless device of claim 10, wherein the one or more PTRS frequency bands are evenly distributed across the PRBs.

14. The wireless device of claim 10, wherein at least one of the one or more PTRS signals replaces a DMRS signal on one or more resource elements of the PRB.

15. The wireless device of claim 10, wherein the wireless device is further configured to interpolate phase noise estimates from two or more PTRS frequency bands to obtain a smoothed phase noise estimate for the PTRS frequency band.

16. The wireless device of claim 10, wherein two or more non-overlapping PTRS frequency bands are received on at least two PTRS ports.

17. The wireless device of claim 10, wherein the PTRS frequency bands are multiplexed using orthogonalized cover sequences.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a device to: Obtaining a physical shared channel allocation, wherein the physical shared channel allocation comprises a plurality of physical resource blocks (PRBs) and one or more phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) bands within the PRBs, wherein the one or more PTRS bands comprise one or more PTRS signals; receiving a signal allocated based on the physical shared channel; filtering the received signal to extract the one or more PTRS frequency bands; processing the one or more PTRS frequency bands to obtain one or more time-domain PTRS signals; estimating phase noise for each PTRS frequency band of the one or more time-domain PTRS signals, including interpolating phase noise estimates from two or more PTRS frequency bands to obtain a smoothed phase noise estimate for the PTRS frequency band; as well as The phase noise estimate is applied to the received signal to produce a noise-compensated signal.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to combine phase noise estimates from two or more PTRS frequency bands to obtain a final phase noise estimate for the PTRS frequency band.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to apply a fast Fourier transform to the noise-compensated signal to generate a frequency-domain processed received signal.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the PRBs form a plurality of contiguous PRBs within each PTRS frequency band.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein guard tones are placed at edges of the consecutive PRBs.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the one or more PTRS frequency bands are evenly distributed across the PRBs.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein at least one of the one or more PTRS signals replaces a DMRS signal on one or more resource elements of the PRB.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein two or more non-overlapping PTRS frequency bands are received on at least two PTRS ports.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the PTRS frequency bands are multiplexed using orthogonalized cover sequences.

27. A processor comprising an integrated circuit configured to perform the method of any one of claims 1-9.

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